Informative Essay On Lobotomy

Many procedures throughout history that dealt with the brain and how someone behaves has been created. Out of all of these procedures, lobotomy stands out the most. Lobotomy is a procedure that severs the nerve pathways in the prefrontal lobe of the brain in order to reduce signs of insanity or relieve mental illnesses.
Swiss physician Gottlieb Burkhardt was the first to show evidence of pacifying patients through manipulation of the human brain. He was influenced by Friedrich Goltz, who practiced on dogs with brain ablation. Beginning in the late 1880s, he removed parts of the brain’s cortex in six patients, of an insane asylum he oversaw, that were experiencing mental illnesses and managed them afterward in the asylum. In 1935, Carlyle Jacobsen
and John Fulton performed frontal lobe ablation on chimpanzees and Antonio Egas Moniz, who is credited for developing lobotomy, began similar experiments on humans. Moniz believed the behavioral problems his patients experienced originated from fixed circuits in the brain. Along with the assistance of Lima, he conducted many leucotomy operations. The operation consisted of drilling holes into the patient’s head and injecting ethyl alcohol into the prefrontal cortex to destroy the fibers that connect it to other parts of the brain. Moniz later created the leucotome, which was specifically designed to sever the neuronal fibers that connected the brain’s prefrontal cortex and the thalamus. The results of these operations, however, were mixed. Few patients displayed improvements, some showed no change, and others died. But, because of the scarce methods available at the time for mental disorders, the practice became very popular.
American neurologist Walter Freeman and James Watts soon modified the leucotomy procedure developed by Moniz and Lima and gave its more notable name today, lobotomy. The use of lobotomy was criticized heavily in the United States, but Freeman used the media to promote lobotomy as a miracle procedure. This lead to a demand for the operation by acquiring the American audience. Freeman later changed and replaced the procedure with a transorbital lobotomy. This procedure called for the use of an orbitoclast, which was a modified ice pick. In the procedure the patient would first be subdued with electroshock treatment. Freeman would then insert the ice pick into the patient’s eye socket with a hammer and move it around to separate the frontal lobe and thalamus. Thus, the transorbital lobotomy procedure was performed very quickly. However, the effects were not all wonderful. These included lack of initiative, poor concentration, a decreased emotional response to life, and some died. Nevertheless, the procedure was met with success and Moniz received a Nobel Prize in 1949 for Physiology or Medicine.
Lobotomy was formerly used on patients with schizophrenia, manic depression and mania, and other mental illnesses and were prioritized to soothe these illnesses and calm their behavior.
But because of the treatments’ accomplishments, the procedure was extensively used on people with behavioral problems not linked to mental disorders. Thus, the procedure was used until the mid-1950s, when medications such as antipsychotics and antidepressants were introduced and proved to be more effective in treating and alleviating mental distresses in patients. Today shock therapy and psychosurgery are the mainstream forms of treating mental disorders, while lobotomies are rarely performed. These are used occasionally on patients whose symptoms resist all other forms of
treatment.
Among Freeman’s many patients, some included children. One such patient was Howard Dully. His stepmother, Lou, believed Howard was defiant and savage looking compared to other children. The doctors she first tried said that Howard was a normal boy, but she still believed differently and thought it was because of his brain. Hence, Lou had him lobotomized by Freeman in order to improve his personality. It took many years for Howard Dully to get his life together after the transorbital lobotomy and made him question himself. After many years Howard went on a journey to understand his lobotomy further in detail. During this journey, he finally discussed his operation with his father, Rodney. Also along his journey he met with Anita Welch, whose life was destroyed by the same transorbital lobotomy, and felt amazing after discussing their common experiences.
Although many of Walter Freeman’s patients showed success and improvements, many also had horrible experiences.
One such case is Rosemary Kennedy, John F. Kennedy’s daughter. Doctors suggested Rosemary to lobotomy to calm her often experienced mood swings and violent outbursts. However, this stole her life from her and made her reliant on others. She could not do many things on her own so she had to change her lifestyle and be cared by others. Her family should instead have rejected the suggestion and let her live her life. Lobotomy was not a trustworthy procedure then and still is not now. This is also the same for Howard Dully’s and Anita Welch’s suggestion of lobotomy. Rodney, Howard’s father, could have rejected his son’s lobotomy since his son was explained as a normal boy, but instead he was sold on the idea and allowed lobotomy to destroy his child’s
life.
Dr. Freeman’s transorbital lobotomy was needed at the time, but should have restricted its use to mental asylum patients, and not allow anyone else to experience them. The world learned of a semi effective treatment to mental disorders, but often misused it. I do believe transorbital lobotomies and Dr. Freeman’s work was beneficial, and one of the best treatments at the time, but it should have been regulated so that people without many problems did not have their lives destroyed. Regulating the practice of lobotomy and transorbital lobotomy would have been a simple task and would instead save many lives.